Posts by Tess Rooney
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The pharmacist who won't dispense pills might have to find another pharmacist...
See that's fair enough. Provided the pharmacy knew to always have two pharmacists on duty, one who was happy to dispense things like Mifepristone, then it's fine.
Just out of interest that would be the only thing I could not dispense were I a pharmacist. And to be honest, I personally wouldn't ever go into pharmacy because my religious beliefs would be an issue.
I personally wouldn't want to be in a situation where I had to exercise my concience in that way. Likewise I would never become a civil union celebrant.
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In New Zealand the Catholic Church has it easier. We don't have Catholic hospitals, or Catholic adoption agencies (as far as I know about anyways). At most we have Catholic hospitals and rest homes for the elderly. And abortion and contraception isn't an issue there. Although euthanasia may be in the future.
So for us here, the dabate is less nasty.
We also don't have that nasty litigiousness that America has.
The closest hoo haa I can think of was a few weeks ago when the Sisters of Mercy allowed a group of gay or lesbian couples to have a retreat at one of their centers - they let them hire it out, they weren't involved in running it.
In the end I think we'll come to a political arrangement that makes most people happy because we aren't an in-your-face culture.
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You know, gay adoption. You come in, and are assessed as to whether you are fabulous enough to be allowed to adopt a gay baby*.
Fine, fine. Participating in _facilitating_ an adoption of a child by a gay or lesbian couple.
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Tricky at the point where the law changes while you're doing the job, yes.
Indeed. It's not as though the State has said that all floobing agencies must be open to everyone. And that's the benchmark for floobing from the beginning. Everyone knows that no one can be stopped from floobing.
Instead we've had these ingrained institutions regarding a natural family, note I said natural not nuclear, and the game is changing.
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...religious groups have begun cultivating persecution complexes as both a political organising tool and a defence mechanism in the face of declining interest, relevance and status.
It's not as though there is a cabal of folk doing this on purpose you know.
Have you ever considered that people are sincere in their belief and genuinely concerned about their freedoms?
The most extreme example of this would be Islamism. So much terrorism is fuelled by a genuine concern that if they don't fight back the West, ie America, will crush them. Obviously it doesn't help that America's response to this is to try and well, crush them.
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But needless to say, nobody forces a religious person to gay adopt or gay marry.
But forcing people into participating in gay adoption or solemnising a gay marriage is okay?
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It would be unforgivably flippant to embed a relevant clip from Dirty Dancing right here, wouldn't it?
Not at all since that was what I was thinking when I wrote it.
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If you take on the responsibilities of an office, and you can't exercise them on grounds of conscience, leave the office.
No, I disagree. So much judicial work does not involve the death penalty, it's not a core function of the office.
Now if you are arguing against the State Executioner, then you have a point. Likewise if a hospital was employing a doctor to perform abortions as the core function of the job, and someone got the job but refused to do abortions, fair enough. But to make the entire career predicated on that basis is silly.
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<quote>'oh noes, you are oppressing [religious sect] by forcing them to treat people equally!'?</quote
Because your idea of equal is different to mine, but you want everyone to play by your rules, yet somehow everyone playing by my rules is wrong and terrible.
If you don't want the discussion to turn this way, then don't try and force people of faith to act against their consciences.
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The bummer is that atheism doesn't really lend itself to that kind of organisation.
which I think undercuts any claim to fairness.
Well that's not my fault is it :)
If you all want tax breaks then get cracking organising. Sheesh.